March 30, 2026
The United States just hit $39 trillion of debt.
Here let me help you with that….it looks like this
No – still not getting it? Ok – all you younger people watching this video right now – maybe this will get your attention.
You getting’ it now?
Now– this is a deep dive – so strap in. And if you can’t watch this whole video now – favorite it – do whatever you have to do and come back to it when you have a few minutes because you need to understand what a big deal this is and how it will impact you and your future kids. Before you panic – you need to know — this is not a new problem. This is a problem that has been accumulating for decades but in the last 20 years it has accelerated. The fact is — it took about 200 years for the US government to accumulate the first trillion dollars of debt – but now we’re adding a trillion dollars to the debt a few times a year. See what it looks like on a chart? Just straight up. Now – here’s the wild card with this debt that could throw the entire country into chaos– the war with Iran.
Let’s start with the basics…some terminology. The deficit is what happens when the US government spends more money in a year than it brings in – in revenue. And when that happens the government borrows money to make up that difference. The last time we didn’t have a deficit and instead had a surplus – meaning we brought in more money than we spent was under President Bill Clinton in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. But since then, huge deficits. The national debt is — all those deficits combined with the interest we have to pay on those deficits. Fun fact – the interest on this debt is costing us more than $1 trillion a year – on just interest payments. I know you’re going to ask — who do we owe this debt to?? The answer is — the vast majority of it –about 75% is owed to us in the United States, to the federal reserve, us investors and government trust funds. The rest of it is owed to foreign investors. The country holding the most US debt is Japan. But China is a close second. And in case it wasn’t clear – carrying all this debt in the short term triggers lots of problems for all of us. The government accountability office says it brings in higher borrowing costs – makes loans for cars and homes more expensive and triggers higher inflation.
Politicians of both parties continually talk about this debt problem, yet they keep making it worse. If you don’t take away nothing else from this video – you need to know two critical things. One –both Republicans and Democrats are contributing to this problem and two– this debt and these deficits are not happening *only* because we’re spending too much. It’s true – of course we have a spending problem – but politicians conveniently leave out the other side. ..which is — we *also have a revenue problem.
That’s a fancy way of saying – congress keeps spending at unsustainable levels on what they think are priorities – but also they don’t want to do what’s necessary to raise revenue to pay for that spending. One of the big ways to raise revenue – is to raise taxes. But they don’t want to do that because it’s politically unpopular to raise taxes and it’s *really* politically unpopular to raise taxes on their donors like big corporations and very rich people. So instead — congress keeps buying stuff and putting it on the old theoretical government credit card.
The other option you will often hear from politicians – is– we can raise revenue by increasing the GDP….the gross domestic product. The gross domestic product is the total value of all the goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period. The theory behind this option– is by making the economic conditions favorable to big business – like tax cuts and slashing regulations – those big businesses will create more goods and services which means consumers will be spending more to buy those goods and services, which means higher corporate profit rates which means those companies can hire more people which means more people will be working and the government can collect more taxes on those all of those things. Except – according to some experts – that’s not really working anymore.
Ok so – we’ve now established that congress is not going to control its spending…because cutting programs is unpopular. And they don’t want to increase taxes….because that’s unpopular. And facilitating an increase in the GDP is not bringing in the revenue it used to – so the question is – how much longer can we stay on this path with $39 trillion in debt and counting hanging over our heads?
Well – the reality is – there’s something protecting the United States of America. The United States is the world reserve currency – that means the US dollar – for decades has been seen as widely accepted currency even outside of the United States. It’s seen as stable currency and is used for trade. On top of – you know how I always say that oil is a global commodity – well – oil is bought and sold –globally — in US dollars so there is always a demand for US dollars and US debt is seen as a very safe investment. So – having $39 trillion in debt isn’t collapsing United States, like it would if any other country had a remotely similar debt. Well – it’s not collapsing … yet. The issue we’re now starting to see is – maybe the world doesn’t see the United States as a stable place anymore – or a safe place to park their money. Maybe the world doesn’t want to rely on the US dollar anymore. Or maybe the world doesn’t want to abide by what they see as the US’s oversized influence on how the world operates. We’ve heard about this so called “de-dollarization” effort for years –a bunch of countries got together to form BRICS currency – to challenge the dollar. It so far hasn’t worked, but now with this war in the Middle East – some experts are sounding the alarm that places like Iran – which are huge oil exporters are looking to start selling their oil in other currencies besides the dollar – in exchange for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. In particular they’re looking at trading their oil in the Chinese currency. Which – if it happens—could lead us down a very slippery slope. And the longer this war drags on some experts say — bigger of a risk we’re running to have that happen. Now – there are other experts who say that’s all a load of bull – the petro dollar and the US dollar as the global currency are here to stay and it’s so engrained in the world’s operations that it would almost impossible to untangle and it’s even possible that the US dollar will come out stronger as a result of this war. It’s up to you to decide who you believe on that. But just the fact that it’s being discussed is something to pay attention to.
But what all the experts can agree on – in the meantime — is this $39 trillion of debt is negatively impacting all of us Americans every single day – it will be detrimental to our children and it’s an absolute liability for the United States. It makes us vulnerable. And if one day the “de-dollarization” effort works – we’re all going to be in very big trouble because that debt is going to come due.
Watch the full House budget committee hearing here.
